BUSWORLD PHOTOGRAPHY

I AM CHRISTOPHER LEACH THE ARTIST. I started this blog so that I can share with everyone my vast collection of transport photographs showing a personal and nostalgic view of the industry with images that span some 45 years taking in the U.K and some of Europe. I have no darkroom and so rather than being the perfectionist after tidying them up I upload the images warts and all, and even those that won't scan squarely or are scratched. In a way it adds age and character. You are all free to download these for your personal use but please remember I still own them and you are not just free to use them without prior permission for any knd of publishing. Click on images to enlarge them and if you want to see more leave your comments or visit my website for the mother-site with galleries including those Buses & Girls: PICTUREWORLD

Monday, 19 March 2018

This winter has been bitterly cold and at this moment I can think of nothing better than spending some time photographing the buses and girls on the Royal Parade in Plymouth. The women here and in Exeter seem to be especially lovely but I'm afraid when it comes to buses it's not what it used to be but under Go-Ahead Plymouth still has it's red 'municipal' buses but sadly the roar of the Atlantean is long gone.

Saturday, 17 March 2018

It is quite true that all our photos do tell a story and I'm all for it when it is something more interesting than the bus. As I like to take most of my photos in a public place I also sometimes also get a bit of an incite into other peoples lives. Here is a good example for as well as Northern Bus 929 CVJ an ECW bodied Leyland Leopard which started life with Eastern National as VHK 177L we can see a worried looking young lady in the back of a South Yorkshire panda car being escorted to the police station here in Sheffield and no doubt fretting about the outcome of yet another shoplifting offence.

Friday, 16 March 2018

Someone's got rather overheated about something and a patient looking bus inspector obviously tries to humour the angry man. Now split into North and South divisions in readiness to be sold off probably all these Greater Manchester buses are Leyland Atlanteans, but another former GMT bus also carrying 'Manchester Standard' Northern Counties bodywork and hiding it's age was a Daimler Fleetline. Hall's green and white colour scheme was very different from the brown and orange buses of it's former owner at Piccadilly Bus Station.

Tuesday, 13 March 2018

Before the M6 was built all the traffic from Birmingham to the North West used to come through Stafford including touring coaches. In 1962 Midland Red had some Fifties C2 and C3 coaches fitted with new Plaxton bodies for extended tours bang up to date with the new Panorama. They were delivered in an off-white creamy livery which was short-lived as can be seen here, but a little was allowed to remain which didn't seem to detract from their appeance at all. This coach would have gone through the town and passed down Greyfriars where Sid Taylor had his scrapyard the final destination for many a BMMO and no doubt where the old Willowbrook body of 4190 still could be found. Maybe it might have been the best place for this Ilford Sporti camera as well but I concede these hazy old photos do have a certain amateurish charm well suited to old dog-eared notebooks and other bus spotting memories.

Apart from having what looks a bit like a 1964 London registration number this bus in Prague had a British connection. It was built by a polish firm Jelcz which had been known as Zubr until 1968 and built buses using licence-built Wola-Leyland engines. At the end of the 1970's an agreement was made with Berliet where Skoda based passenger models would be replaced with the PR100 city bus hence it's rather brutal french appearance. However it was powered by Berliet or the Wola-Leyland.

Monday, 12 March 2018

Under positive guidance from the local Labour Council South Yorkshire PTE set out to be a good example of how bus services could charge low fares and run modern passenger friendly buses. But with Deregulation it had to be sold off and ended up with an operator with a poor reputation First Bus. Yet to be repainted and still looking smart was this Wright bodied Volvo one of a fleet of low-floor buses the PTE had bought.

Sunday, 11 March 2018

Birmingham was bathed in bright sunshine when I took this shot of a West Midlands Metrobus with the Rotunda in the background, a more durable landmark in this city which is constantly changing. We are now more aware of Victorian buildings that deserve to be saved but the Rotunda so symbolishes the concrete underpass Birmingham of the Sixties and early-Seventies it should be preserved as an important landmark of it's time, the other one that springs to mind as being of national importance is the magnificently bold and brutal Preston Bus Station.

Busworld Photography

Many know my more recent genre Buses and Girls photography as those earlier buses I really like have all gone so now I enjoy my bus hobby more for the photography. As well as being an artist I owned a small transport business before I retired but today I have a little job too driving a minibus dong a school run to Wolverhampton in the afternoon and occasionally other jobs. It gets me out and about and satisfies my childhood ambition to drive a bus.

Christopher Leach Transport Photography

I am probably better known for my bus photography than my work as an artist which is about right as being fairly contented I don't do much drawing these days. Indeed I don't do a lot of photography either as I find todays street less interesting and a great deal more hostile to hobbyists. Instead I slowly scan and post my many often deeply nostalgic views as the mood takes me. I suppose I should revitalise the format of my blog but I've always liked the blue and as they say "If it ain't broke why fix it."